Since it is a multi-authors book, the editor had to face the difficult challenge of sorting out 25 individual contributions (chapters) in a meaningful way. Here, no doubt a different sorting could have resulted in a better flow during a reading exercise. For example, there is a section in the middle of the book with 5 chapters all dealing with a class of hard magnets. It is made of a mixed bag of experiments and modeling, some of them being discussed elsewhere in the book before and/or after where they are mentioned. Also since this class of alloys is investigated for its unique magnetic properties, there was a missed opportunity to review the modeling spanning from thermodynamics to macro-scale, and discuss what it takes to deal with magnetism in modeling, and what are the extra challenges that magnetism brings. Hence the best way to approach this book, or report, is to pick and chose your favorite subject and select your chapters or portions thereof accordingly. In a way, this book loses a broader audience that would have been keener on a more tutorial content. The second weakness concerns the narrowness of most contributions when it comes to reference to contributions outside Germany: no major complaint here since it is after all a summary report of the activities undertaken in Germany within a program sponsored by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation). However the reader is left with the feeling that it is difficult for knowledge to cross borders…

This book reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the study of phase transformations in complex materials. It draws on experimental probes, and modeling and simulations tools, and their applications to a number of phenomena ranging from the origin and control of phase formation and microstructure to growth morphology, thermal properties, phase equilibrium at the nano-scale, mass transport and its implications during crystal growth, and finally solidification and non-isothermal phenomena. Under the section title “thermodynamics”, the first six chapters are focusing on the coupling between fundamental thermodynamics and materials properties. Most of the topics are considered from an experimental perspective, and address key issues on phase formation and interfacial tension in Al-based alloys, monotectic growth morphology, thermal expansion and surface tension, solid-liquid interface energy measurements, and phase equilibria in metallic nano-particles. The second six chapters under the umbrella title “Microscopic and Macroscopic dynamics”, deal with melt structure, diffusion, simulations and experiments on microscopic transport processes at the liquid/solid interface, and two extra chapters on the description of Bernal’s liquids and solidification experiments on colloidal melts. The next five chapters focus on hard-magnetic neodymium-based materials with a mixture of topics ranging from simulation of nucleation and growth to phase selection processes during crystallization, and relation of microstructure to magnetic properties. If the first three sections are focusing on specific classes of multi-component alloys, the last section on “Solidification and Simulation” with its eight chapters is dedicated to the application of theoretical tools ranging from solvability continuum theory to phase-field modeling and molecular dynamics simulations to more generic aspects of solidification in multi-component and multi-phase alloys including elastic effects on melting in eutectic and peritectic systems, the combined motion of melting and solidification fronts, crack growth, and non-isothermal processes during solidification.

In the multi-disciplinary field covered by this book, renowned scientists have been called to report on their recent work, and at the end detailed and useful information can be found for anyone that has an interest in advanced casting processes and design of multi-component alloy systems from fundamental modeling and experiments to applications that could lead to potential materials innovation that fulfills engineering requirements. Scientists with a background in solid-state physics, materials science, physical and process metallurgy, and chemistry should find throughout this report interesting information worth being acquainted with, and for those who have very little knowledge of the field, this report should help them to identify subjects bearing potential output for further research, both experimentally and theoretically, on phase transformation in multi-component melts.